Technology

We're happy to share our favourite technology and tools and encourage you to use them too!

Once upon a time in business, you would hold your cards close to your chest and play the business game with a poker face. But that’s not our style at all. We believe there is more than enough business for everybodyand if we give more, we shall receive.

That’s why we thought we’d share some of the incredible technology that makes our business tick in case it’s useful to you or people you know. In most cases they have free trials available.

Click on the links below to check them out, and feel free to tell your friends to visit this page too!

Business Catalyst

Websites are dead. It's time for an Online Business. Our hosted and easy-to-use system is designed to meet your specific business needs - allowing you to focus on your goals, not mastering the technology behind it. Replace 10+ systems with 1. Our fully integrated system gives you the power of multiple software suites, easily controlled from one central interface. Managing your business has never been so simple!

We offer a 30 day FREE trial of our system, which allows you to build your own website from scratch or even import your current website!

Freshbooks

How does having the ability to issue your invoices from anywhere, anytime sound? Even from your iPhone! Yup. That’s right. We’ve been using Freshbooks since 2008 and can’t believe we ever did without it.

With a simple PayPal account in hand, you are able to start to accept credit card payments online, without any other merchant facilities (so no overheads there!) and can even set up an automated reminder system which will follow up outstanding bills via email in a personalized but firm manner, ensuring your debt levels stay low and your cash flows.

PayPal

If you are running an online business (also known as a website) it’s highly likely that at some point you’ll want to either purchase or accept money online. If you are unsure of what level of sales you will be doing, or whether you can afford the overheads that come with being the overhead of merchant facilities, Paypal is your answer.

Among its features you can accept donations (one off or recurring) online (great for charities), allow clients to pay for and direct gift vouchers + simply accept money for a product or service.Accept Money Online ►

MailChimp

We like these guys a lot because they offer pay-as-you-go plans + monthly plans, and they integrate with a bunch of add-ons so you can get things working between everything from your ecommerce to your accounts to your emarketing.

This monkey is a good tracker too - see who opened, what they clicked, who bounced, how many times people forwarded your awesome campaign, who didn't open, and more.

Basecamp

This one won’t be for everybody but if you are forever searching your inbox for files related to a job or project you are completing for someone, you’ll love Basecamp. Simply set up a project, grant access to the client and all associated team members, then enjoy the benefit of all messages from all parties running into one long and convenient message thread.

You can also set up to do lists and associated deadlines, upload and share files and set milestones, meaning you can collaborate on just about anything.

Highrise

Looking for a simple and reasonably priced CRM? Highrise is a great solution and even better it integrates with some of the other technologies listed on this page such as Freshbooks, Basecamp and MailChimp.

Highrise remembers so you never forget. Store every conversation, email, call, meeting, document, and deal you’ve ever had with a contact. With Highrise you’ll always know who you talked to, what was said, and when to follow-up next.

hootsuite

Ever wondered how people manage multiple social media accounts from the one location including scheduling their status updates, posts and tweets ahead of time? Hootsuite is your answer! Check it out now. Free trials available.

Eventbrite

Do you ever organise events? Eventbrite empowers you with simple but powerful tools to manage, promote, and sell out your event. It's free to sign up and get started. They do this by making it incredibly easy to create, find or attend an event.

They help you manage the hard stuff—such as registrations and selling tickets—and they set you up with the tools to help your event spread virally through social networks. It's event management, search, and promotion all coming together for the first time. It's called social commerce.

Do you ever organise events? Eventbrite empowers you with simple but powerful tools to manage, promote, and sell out your event. It's free to sign up and get started. They do this by making it incredibly easy to create, find or attend an event.

They help you manage the hard stuff—such as registrations and selling tickets—and they set you up with the tools to help your event spread virally through social networks. It's event management, search, and promotion all coming together for the first time. It's called social commerce

Capsule

In the market for a CRM (Client Relationship Management System?) Use Capsule to keep track of the people and companies you do business with, communications with them, opportunities in the pipeline, and what needs to be done when.

dreamtemplate

DreamTemplate.com lets you access a large collection of professionally designed website template files. Go on there just to gain inspiration or purchase a design to fast track your website build or revamp. If you are designing with us, talk to us first so we can assist you in your selection.

Designing for the web has never been easier, with DreamTemplate you can rapidly create and deploy professional looking website's quickly.

1shoppingcart

This is the best 'all in one' system we've ever come across. You can do your broadcasts to all your database or segments of your database, schedule broadcasts for future dates, check open/sent ratios, place ad trackers to check what content is popular and which is not, integrate forms so that names entered on your website go straight into the database for you to broadcast to and that's just the emarketing! It also has an in-built affiliate system, ecommerce system, analytics, coupons and oh so much more.

Vision6

Vision6 is very popular and is an Australian system but it's definitely not the cheapest solution around.

Not only will you pay monthly access fees (which tend to be higher than others out there) you'll also pay based on how many messages you send - not good if you want to get into your emarketing in a big way!

Mad Mimi

If you term yourself a bit of a 'techno-phobe' i.e. someone who is afraid of technology, this solution could be just what you've been looking for. It's also one of the most cost effective options we've seen.

AWeber

These guys have been around for a while and really know their stuff. Apart from having most features you would expect from an emarketing system (templates, tracking etc) they also have extras such as comprehensive subscriber management tools which allow you to manage 'subscriptions' to your database, be that automate digital product delivery and post-purchase email campaigns.

Like MadMimi and 1shoppingcart they also have autoresponders which once you start using you'll wonder how you ever lived without them.

24-7 press release

Launched in 2004, 24-7PressRelease.com is a leader in the online press release distribution industry. Through its multi-channel distribution network, 24-7PressRelease.com helps corporations and organizations disseminate their news to consumers, editors, journalists, bloggers, and websites.

Today, 24-7PressRelease.com has a database of over 60,000 members. Business owners recognize the importance of an invaluable press release service which is why 24-7PressRelease.com has become the preferred choice by so many companies.

Communicator 2

Clickatell's Communicator 2 is a web-based, bulk SMS tool that allows you to send personalised bulk SMS text messages and receive replies to your Communicator 2 Inbox. There is no download necessary.

The easy-to-use address book lets you to store all your contacts and send bulk SMS text messages to everyone in one go, or in batches of your choice, or use Communicator 2 as an internal messaging tool in enterprise environments.

Setster

Weebly

Weebly is a web-hosting service that features a drag-and-drop website builder. As of July 2012, Weebly had over 12 million users. The company is headquartered in San Francisco. If you can't afford to build a website with us (our budgets start at $2500) a Weebly website may be just what you need.

Clicktale

Crazyegg

The Astonishing Power of Eye Tracking Technology...Without the High Costs all the most powerful secrets, tips and tricks that have EVER been written on Heat Maps and how you can apply them to your site.

Oak Hotels

Social Bro

The SocialBro Platform enables advanced segmentation and audience insight into Twitter users – not just based on what they say or who they are, but how they think – to generate campaign-specific tailored audiences and serve relevant content to relevant people at the relevant time.

We acknowledge the wise people of our Indigenous communities, past and present who are the foundations of this great country of ours. We recognise that we share this land with the traditional owners and custodians.